1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an automated system for selecting stored articles. One embodiment of the present invention is an automated system for filling prescriptions and restocking medicines in a pharmacy.
2. Description of Related Art
Many industries store products or parts in a storeroom or storage area and repeatedly select some of the stored items to fill orders or for other uses. Such items may range from small electronic components used by a manufacturer of electronic devices to automotive parts, which vary in size, used by service departments of automobile dealerships. Usually one or more people are employed to retrieve the requested items and to restock new and returned items. These individuals may also be required to confirm that the requested items are compatible with one another and with previously supplied items. If the supplied items are to be billed to a customer or charged to particular internal accounts, the list of items is first written by the requester, and rewritten or entered into a computer database by the storeroom attendant to create an invoice, supply list or other document. In some instances, further generations of the list are made by installers, users or billing clerks. Such methods have built-in opportunities for mistakes every time a list is rewritten and are less efficient than automated systems. Moreover, as labor costs rise and the size of inventory needed to be stored expands, the conventional storeroom and parts department become more and more expensive.
Some businesses have attempted to control costs by limiting inventory through standardization of parts. But such limits are not possible or desirable in some industries, particularly in a hospital pharmacy.
Currently, in large hospital environments, doctors visit patients in nursing units and write out medication orders for each patient. A patient is typically placed on a certain medication which may require multiple doses of medication be administered over a period of a day. Some medications are administered at certain times of the day and possibly at intervals of several hours. Patients may also request certain medications on an elective basis for disorders such as headaches. These requests are included in the doctor's order that is sent from the nursing unit to the central pharmacy of the hospital.
Once an order is received by the pharmacy, it is checked by registered pharmacists and input into the pharmacy information system. These orders reflect not only orders that are added to a particular patient's treatment, but changes in the medication treatment. The pharmacy information system combines this information with the patient's existing medication schedule and develops a patient medication profile. A fill list is generated from that profile. The fill list is a list of all the medications that must be distributed to all patients for the day. This information is sent to the pharmacy printer where a hard copy is generated. Frequently, that hard copy or a copy thereof is sent to the billing department so that the medication can be charged to the patient or his insurer.
At this point, the drugs for a particular patient are hand-picked by either a pharmacist or a pharmacy technician and placed in the particular patient's designated box. A registered pharmacist must then check the accuracy of the patient order before it leaves the pharmacy. Individual patient boxes are then loaded into a large cassette and delivered to the nursing unit.
Approximately 30% of the drugs dispensed each day are returned to the pharmacy unused. Since each drug is individually packaged, the drugs must be returned to the pharmacy stock. Patients are then credited for unused medication. This return and crediting process is a very time-consuming task and requires a significant amount of pharmacy manpower.
In a typical large pharmacy, up to 35 pharmacists and pharmacy technicians are responsible for all aspects of the unit dose dispensing task. Because this process is done manually, a certain amount of error occurs. Studies have estimated that a half-percent error rate is typical in a large hospital. Since a hospital may dispense over 6,000 doses each day, this error rate leads to a significant number of missed or incorrect doses.
Several companies have tried to automate this process through various approaches to the problem. Meditrol utilizes a vending machine approach to dispense the unit dose medications. Each nursing unit must have its own stock of prescription drugs. Nurses key in a patient ID and the drugs for that patient are then dispensed from the vending machine. This system is very expensive because of the necessity of purchasing a machine for each nursing unit. Also, restocking each machine is a very time-consuming task. Implementation of this system requires a complete modification of the current drug dispensing process which many hospitals are reticent to undertake. This system claims no labor-saving advantages from its implementation. This system is covered under U.S. Pat. No. 3,917,045 titled "Drug Dispensing Apparatus" and dated Nov. 11, 1975.
Baxter Travenol offers a dispensing system from Samsung, a Korean company, which dispenses bulk solids into a package which is dispensed to the pharmacist. This system only dispenses the 200 most frequently used solids. A typical hospital pharmacy can contain over 1,500 different medications, many in liquid, syringe or bottle form. These medications cannot be automatically dispensed by this system, but must be manually selected by the pharmacist.
Neither system allows the dispensed medications to be automatically returned to the storage area. Thus, there is a need for an automated system which is able to dispense all dosage forms currently contained in a hospital pharmacy. Medicines should be automatically dispensed by the system per a patient order and placed in individual patient medication boxes for a pharmacist to check. Each drug and each patient box should be individually bar coded so that the accuracy of the dispensing process can be automatically checked by the system. Once drugs are returned to the pharmacy, the system should automatically return each drug to its proper location in inventory and credit the patient's account for the return. One system should also keep a running inventory and notify the user whenever inventory of a particular item drops below a preset level and whether the shelf life of an item has passed. With such a system, a hospital can recognize significant labor savings, as well as savings based on improved accuracy in the dispensing function and better tracking of inventory and expired medications.
In U.S. Pat. No. 5,468,110 which issued from a parent application there is disclosed an automated pharmacy system in which a robot picks unit dose packages from a straight track. This system has worked well in hospitals where a large room is available. However, in hospitals where no large rooms are available it is necessary to remove walls or build an addition to have this automated pharmacy. Additionally, the system may be an ideal solution for smaller hospitals who want to lower their distribution costs. Consequently, there is a need for a compact automated package dispensing system.